COST OF TV SHOWS SPIRALING UPWARD

TV, according to ABC's erstwhile ad campaign, is good. Prime-time TV, according to anyone whose name doesn't end in Trump or Rockefeller, also happens to be very expensive to make.

Even in today's media-savvy culture, people probably don't give much thought to how much it costs to produce their favorite television shows or to where that money goes. Nevertheless, the issue is significant to the TV industry, especially as ratings continue to dwindle, gradually resulting in a flattening of advertising revenues.

Granted, top series like ER, NYPD Blue and The X-Files showcase the best television has to offer, in the process exhibiting a level of quality that often puts big-budget feature films to shame for a fraction of the price. But should it really cost more than $1 million to produce an episode of CBS' Promised Land, the recent Bo Derek series Wind on Water, or UPN's short-lived Mercy Point?

According to TV executives, the budget for most new one-hour series runs from $1.3 million to $1.8 million per episode, with $750,000 to $950,000 spent on average for a half-hour sitcom.

Everybody who thinks they have a sure-fire dramatic hit brewing in them, as a result, first has to find someone to foot the bill. Based on budgets reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, studio spreadsheets regularly include weekly items like $15,000 for makeup and hair, $30,000 for wardrobe, $35,000 for lighting and $25,000 just to dress the sets.

Actors and top producers not surprisingly represent a big part of the average series budget, but the price fluctuates widely from show to show. Viewers have doubtless heard about the extravagant sums paid for top programs and talent -- how NBC now shells out $13 million to Warner Bros. Television for each installment of ER, or how Tim Allen is garnering $1.25 million per episode of Home Improvement this season.

Salaries often increase exponentially the longer a popular series stays on the air, with stars like Mad About You's Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt gaining the leverage to command huge raises in their fifth year and beyond, just as the ER cast negotiated new contracts to share in that bounty.

Casting a well-established performer like Ted Danson or Michael J. Fox as the lead will skew the amount that goes toward what's known as "above-the-line" costs -- that is, the portion of the budget allocated to actors, directors and writers.

On the flip side, big special-effects shows like Star Trek: Voyager and Xena: Warrior Princess (the latter saves money by shooting in New Zealand) place a higher percentage of their budgets toward "below-the-line" costs, which include technical areas such as special effects, costumes and production design.

"In the late '80s, the average one-hour drama cost a little over $1 million to produce," said Peter Chernin, chairman of the Fox Group. "Last year, The X-Files cost more than $2.5 million per episode." Sources say that figure has climbed even higher with the program's move from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Hollywood this season.

Industry sources say the average new prime-time hour usually runs $900,000 to $1 million for below-the-line expenses, coupled with $500,000 to $700,000 in above-the-line costs. In sitcoms, which cost about $850,000 to produce, the ratio is generally reversed, with about 40 percent of the budget spent on technical areas.

In breaking those figures down, studio sources say they are "lucky" to be under $100,000 for the main cast of a show, which usually runs higher.

For that reason, a two-tiered system has developed: Stars draw astronomical salaries, while networks and studios are more tightfisted compensating players with less marquee value.

Studios have to be prepared to spend more than $100,000 in most instances on a program's writing staff, with some executive producers earning $75,000 or more per episode. Payments spiral downward from there: supervising producer, roughly $15,000 to $22,500 per show; producer, $12,500 to $17,500; and story editors, $7,500 to $9,000.

Because television is principally a writer-producer's medium, directors often come and go as guns for hire, though many series retain directors on staff. Directors Guild of America scale begins at $24,200 an episode for a one-hour show.